A diplomat who studies the “lessons” of history

Nikolay Spasskiy has been Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Italy since 1997. Born in 1961, a graduate of the State Institute of International Relations in Moscow, he has been in the diplomatic service since 1983. A Doctor in Political Science, his doctoral thesis was on medium-range missiles in Europe. He has also done research on the evolution of US policy towards perestroika, becoming a university teacher. In recent years he has published articles and essays on ancient history and on the problems of power and totalitarianism. In 1999 a collection of stories, essays and play texts entitled ‘The end of the world and other Roman stories’ came out in Italy. In September 2000 Mondadori published ‘The plot’, a novel of political fantasy, which came out the following year in France.